politics and fear

As I was eating my Shreddies this morning I noticed that someone had left a political campaigning leaflet on the kitchen table. It was not for a party which I usually support but I read through it and then got to the part where they tried to scare me. If you vote for so and so it read, things will be very bad because you will open the doors to all sorts of bogeymen.

I am not mentioning the names of a party or a policy because I have noticed that this negative scaremongering is becoming more common - instead of politicians telling us what they are going to do right - they seem to spend a lot of time explaining in graphic detail what the other side are doing wrong and the dire consequences of that.

So it was a relief to read the Gospel of the day - John 14:1-14 - where Jesus tells his disciples not to worry - he has it all sorted out for them. This sort of positivity comes out of complete confidence in who He is and who God is. There is not a mention of "do this or else" instead Jesus reflects back to the Disciples the love which he feels for them....what else could this mean other than that they will be looked after....for ever.

Perhaps it is a lack of confidence which causes us to attack others to support our own position...human beings are complicated in the way in which we choose to deal with our own inadequacies and questions. Perhaps we should look back at the tone of Jesus response in this passage more often - it's OK, he says, I love you and that is all that matters.

It can sound sentimental in the face of the real world we live in. But imagine how different our political scene would be if we removed the smoke and mirrors and our public servants became just that - people doing the best they could for the people they served - even if it cost them. People who honestly offered what they have and even dared to admit when they had weaknesses.

Perhaps we like this celebrity clad, glittering politics which relies on exploiting fear of the vaguely possible and weaknesses of those set up as opponents. Perhaps we enjoy the thrill of the chase. Or perhaps we really just know how fallible each and every one of us can be - and we long for the fairy-tale of something different.

Exploiting fear for political gain is an unfortunate reality - but not one which, I hope most of us, especially those who hear Jesus telling us not to worry, will use as the norm.